Eight Killed, 30 Injured as Bus Hits Dumper on Hazara Motorway

Photo: ARY News

A bus carrying passengers from Gilgit to Rawalpindi crashed into a dumper truck near Havelian early on Friday morning. At least eight people were killed and 30 injured, among them five children and six women, and four of the injured are in critical condition.

The crash happened near the Havelian Interchange on the Hazara Motorway, rescue officials said. The bus was on its way from Gilgit to Rawalpindi when one of its tyres burst. The driver lost control, and the bus smashed into the dumper truck.

Rescue 1122 Abbottabad sent seven ambulances and a rescue vehicle to the scene. The rescue work, led by District Emergency Officer Hafeezur Rehman, went on through the morning until all the dead and injured had been moved to hospital.

All eight people who died were reported to be from Gilgit. One body was taken to the Type-D Hospital in Havelian, four were shifted to Ayub Medical Complex in Abbottabad, and three went to the District Headquarters Hospital in Abbottabad.

All 30 injured passengers, including five children, six women and 19 men, were taken to Ayub Medical Complex. Four of them are in critical condition and were moved to the emergency operation theatre, where surgery was under way.

The death toll was still being counted in the first hours after the crash, and early reports put it lower. The hospital and rescue officials later confirmed eight dead. ARY News reported seven killed in the Abbottabad crash, and four more in a separate accident in Bhakkar the same morning, when a tractor trolley overturned near Khusor Road.

It is the second deadly bus crash on a Pakistani motorway in days. Earlier this week, 11 people were killed and 33 hurt when a bus hit a truck near Pakpattan. The Gilgit to Rawalpindi route carries passengers across some of the hardest mountain roads in the country, and tyre bursts and brake failures have caused several fatal crashes on it over the years.

Doctors at Ayub Medical Complex say the next hours matter most for the four patients in critical condition.

Sources

• Dawn: Eight killed, 30 injured in bus-truck collision on Hazara Motorway
• ARY News: At least 11 killed, 30 injured in separate road accidents in Abbottabad, Bhakkar

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